A ‘Can Do’ Spirit For MSG and Melanesia

“In terms of the broad Melanesian Spearhead Group family, my intention is to re-institute the spirit of ‘can do’ that characterised the MSG when it was first formed in the 1980s.”

That’s Leonard Louma, the new Director General of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat in Port Vila.   

Appointed in February, the veteran PNG official and diplomat has years of experience in regional affairs. Born in PNG’s Milne Bay Province, Louma has served in an array of senior positions in the PNG Foreign Affairs Department and Office of the Prime Minister, and as Chief of Staff for the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare between 2005-11. 

The MSG Secretariat serves the five members of the sub-regional organisation: Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the New Caledonian independence movement Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS). In a controversial decision at the 2015 MSG summit in Honiara, leaders also granted associate membership to Indonesia “representing the five Melanesian provinces in Indonesia”. At the same time, MSG leaders agreed that “the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) be admitted as an observer under the regional and international category representing Melanesians living abroad.” Since then, ULMWP – a coalition of West Papuan nationalist groups – has continued to lobby for full MSG membership.

The 2015 Honiara summit laid out an ambitious MSG program on trade, transport, digital connectivity and labour mobility, framed by an overarching regional strategy – the ‘MSG 2038 Prosperity for All Plan’. But recent years have been challenging for the sub-regional Secretariat, exacerbated by the travel restrictions and economic challenges of the COVID pandemic. Outgoing MSG Director General Amena Yauvoli of Fiji ended his term in early 2020, and his deputy George Hoa’au has served as Acting Director General since that time. 

With the region facing a complex and crowded agenda, amid US-China tensions, Louma now brings extensive diplomatic experience to the MSG. Now it’s time to focus on Melanesia. 

In an exclusive interview, Louma told Islands Business: “My priorities are very, very simple. First, I want to get our house in order. I want to get the machinery of the Secretariat working properly.”

Since his appointment, the new Director General has begun an update of Secretariat processes, initiating a revised corporate plan, a realistic annual work program and “a robust monitoring and evaluation system to determine what might be our shortfalls and our strengths, and what needs to be done to address some of the initiatives that have been taken in the past.”

Another urgent task is to reassess the constrained financial status of the organisation: “I’m working around the clock to try and see if we can get the financial resources for the Secretariat to be replenished, to a level where we can be able to do things properly.”

Louma also stressed the need to update the MSG membership, through an annual report and regular consultations.

“We answer to our owners, and this is the members,” he said. “We also are accountable for resources that come to us from our partners. A delay in an annual report, for me, does not go well with confidence from both our owners and our partners, in terms of what we are doing. They can then provide us with the necessary guidance and the necessary financial wherewithal to do our work.”

A spirit of ‘can do’

Evoking the ‘can do’ spirit that exemplified the early days of the MSG, Louma highlighted the 1980s campaign against French nuclear testing and the MSG’s central role in the re-inscription of New Caledonia on the UN list of non-self-governing territories (adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1986).

“I was a junior officer in Foreign Affairs when it was first canvassed in the early 1980s in Forum circles,” he explained. “Not many were very confident that we’d be able to get it through, in the face of France’s diplomatic clout. But MSG pushed on, got the support from the Forum, then went out to the Non-Aligned Movement and to the Commonwealth. Then we went to the UN and succeeded. So as the MSG family, that’s the spirit I want to see re-instated and reinvigorated: the spirit of enterprise, the spirit of can do.”

This ambition relates to trade policy as well, which remains a central plank of the MSG agenda. 

“When our leaders in the mid-1980s decided to go into the MSG Trade Agreement, we agreed to start with three products,” Louma said. “Everybody did not think that was workable – we were the laughing stock in most cocktail parties. They said, ‘What can these countries do with only three products?’ Our leaders said we must start off with what we can bite and chew and swallow. Let’s be realistic – we start with three. Now we have ended up with over a thousand items that we are trading with!”

The early phases of the MSG Trade Agreement focussed on trade in goods but has now expanded to a more ambitious – but as yet incomplete – plan to expand trade policy into the services sector, as well as creating mechanisms for free labour mobility across Melanesian nations. However only two of the four member states have so far signed and ratified the updated version of trade agreement.

Since his appointment Louma has been consulting with MSG members to advance this central plank of regional co-operation: “I’ve had consultations with Papua New Guinea who has not yet signed. The trade officials are working very hard to reconcile their commitments in other trade arrangements, so it’s similar to what they are committed to in the MFTA. The message I’ve got from them, is that as soon as they’ve reconciled all those commitments, they would be ready to sign off.”

“In the meantime, I’m happy to note that in all my consultations, the trade officials have been very positive, encouraging our business sector to interact with each other without waiting for a formal MSG Trade Agreement to be operational,” he said. “I’ve spoken to PNG officials, to BSP, to Credit Corporation, to Lamana Holdings – all said we are not going to wait for the services sector of the new trade agreement to come into play. We are already exploring opportunities in the MSG countries.”

As Islands Business reported last month, Melanesian companies are seeking to expand niche markets like the revitalised kava trade to Australia. Louma also sees encouraging signs of private sector investment by local corporations across national boundaries: “The Lamana group of companies have gone as far as Samoa, as far as Honiara. The Solomon Islands NPF [National Provident Fund] is a shareholder in one of our hotels in Loloata Island Resort in PNG. So between them, they are not waiting for the new trade agreement with the services sector included, they are exploring opportunities now.”

Smaller island states around the region have signed on to the PACER-Plus trade agreement, but the two largest island economies – Fiji and Papua New Guinea – have refused to sign on to the Australian-initiated agreement. Louma suggests this won’t change any time soon: “PNG trade officials suggest that after the reconciliation of trade agendas, they will look at the MSG Trade Agreement first, and look at PACER-Plus later.”

Building blocks for regionalism

The focus on Melanesian networking comes at a time of debate over the role of sub-regional organisations and their relations with the Pacific Islands Forum. This has been highlighted by the proposed withdrawal from the Forum of the five members of the Micronesian Presidents’ Summit (MPS), amidst anger over the 2021 election of Henry Puna as Forum Secretary General. The Polynesian Leaders Group (PLG) is also becoming more active, as Forum looks locally for post-COVID recovery.

Louma disagrees that this sub-regional co-ordination undercuts the ongoing role of the Forum or other member agencies of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP).

“For me, the MSG and any other sub-regional group is not a threat to regionalism,” he said. “All sub-regional organisations are building blocks for a stronger regionalism. Therefore, I do not see activities done within the Micronesian summit or in the Polynesian Leaders Group or in the MSG as being divisive.

“I’ve always held this view: for regionalism to really be effective, we need strong sub-regionalism,” he added. “With a bigger group, it is more difficult to build consensus and to find common ground, to push a particular issue fast. Whereas in sub-regional groupings, you can move, because of the smaller numbers involved. You can find common ground much easier, and from there, you build confidence – then you go to the larger group to say ‘see, this is what we are able to do.’ If they are comfortable, over time we can expand the reach of this initiative to other countries in the region.”

As Forum leaders prepare for a face-to-face summit in mid-July, there is significant discussion about processes of consultation and the election of its leadership. For Louma, it is crucial that Forum members hold to their commitments: “One of the lessons that can be learnt from the Micronesian experience is that in the region, if we agree with other how we are going to do things – written or unwritten – then we should be able to find within ourselves to honour that. If we start to do things in a way with variance with what we think, that’s when unnecessary hiccups come in the way of regionalism.”

Self-determination on the agenda

Unity in the Melanesian Spearhead Group has been strained on occasions over the last decade, such as the dispute over the transfer of the MSG chair to post-coup Fiji in 2009-2010, or ongoing differences over relations with Indonesia.

This issue arose again in March, when the MSG Secretariat received a contribution of US$100,000 from the Indonesian National Police. The ULMWP and Vanuatu government raised concern over the donation at a time Indonesia is deploying troops and police to West Papua, and cracking down on protests against Jakarta’s plans to divide West Papua into five provinces. Dialogue with the Jokowi administration has failed to open the way for a diplomatic mission to West Papua by the UN Human Rights Rapporteur.

Acknowledging this debate, Louma rejects suggestions that the MSG is divided over the vexed question of West Papua.

“In Melanesia, in Micronesia or in Polynesia, we have disagreements amongst ourselves, now and then, within the family,” he said. “But we have always been able to reconcile those differences and continue to pursue common objectives, collective interests as a family. For me, within MSG, there are certain issues that might expose differences of approach, but not necessarily differences in the outcome.”

He stresses that “the Secretariat will only prosecute the collective decisions of the MSG. We won’t prosecute the decisions of individual MSG countries. In terms of the differences, the nuances, that different MSG countries have on the issue of West Papua, I’ll leave it to them to manage, either with Indonesia or amongst themselves.”

Unlike the ULMWP, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) under President Ishmael Toroama has not come knocking at the door, seeking membership of the MSG. Louma congratulates the “very responsible approach” shown by outgoing PNG Prime Minister James Marape and President Toroama, as they seek to advance Bougainville’s transition towards a new political status during an election year in Papua New Guinea.

“Both the Bougainvilleans and the national government should be commended for the patience they have shown in trying to resolve a program that is acceptable both to the government and the Bougainvilleans themselves,” he said. “The PNG government gave the opportunity for the Bougainvilleans to choose what they want for their political status – they have overwhelmingly voted to be independent. They have agreed to a process post-referendum and are undertaking that with a lot of diligence, such as the signing of the Era Kone Covenant.”

From its founding, the MSG has shown solidarity with the Kanak people of New Caledonia. The FLNKS remains a full MSG member, though the Government of New Caledonia has long sought to upgrade its role in the sub-regional organisation (a process that may accelerate under current President Louis Mapou, the first pro-independence leader in New Caledonia for nearly forty years).

For Louma, MSG support for the FLNKS is unwavering: “New Caledonia is still regarded as a non-self-governing territory. France as an administering power has certain responsibilities that it has assumed because of this status of New Caledonia. France has also assumed certain responsibilities under the Noumea Accord. For the MSG Secretariat, we would want to see that France remains honest and faithful to its responsibilities.”

As he focusses on stronger co-ordination amongst MSG members, his early months have been roiled by the media furore over the new security agreement between China and Solomon Islands.

“The unfortunate thing about the narrative that is being pushed at the moment is that it has taken our attention away from the real security issues of the region,” Louma said. “It has taken away our interest in checking what it is that motivated one of our own to go outside and look for that assistance. If we focus our attention on trying to figure out just what promoted then to go out, maybe we might be able to help the need for any other country to go outside of our current comfort zone.” 

Above all, he reiterates that the MSG is part of the regional consensus over the central challenge of climate change to the security of Pacific peoples: “We’ve always been party to the Boe Declaration, we all subscribe to it, and it clearly states that environment is our clear and present danger, not the discussion we are currently seeing in the media.”